A Day at Yosemite

We decided to do a little exploring of our new state yesterday, and as a result spent the day at Yosemite.

It only takes about an hour to get to the entrance of the park, and another forty minutes or so to get to the valley floor, where the "famous" rock faces are (depending on how often you stop to take pictures on the way there). It's a very windy road up there (and down into the valley), but absolutely worth it.

We had lunch at the "Village", hiked over past the Ahwahnee Hotel, and up to Mirror Lake and back. We also went over and looked at Yosemite Falls up close. We were able to see some of the big Sequoias, but not too many, because by the time we got there, it was too late to hike around much.

Everyone had a good time. Well, almost everyone. Falling into the "Learn Something New Every Day" category for yesterday was the park ranger telling us as we came in that dogs are only allowed on a few trails in the park. In fact, they aren't allowed on any dirt paths at all -just the paved ones. This is not so they don't mar the pristine scenery by leaving little doggy gifts on the paths, but rather so they don't get eaten by the large animals that roam the park. The ranger informed us that mountain lions just love little dogs (for snacks), and not long before a lady had her little lap dog snatched right off of her lap by a coyote.

There was long moment of stunned silence in our car after that report, and it was then that we decided that Mocha could experience Yosemite from her spot in the van. Thankfully it was a cool day in the Park yesterday, and with our shady parking spot she seemed quite comfortable.

I looked for a doggy t-shirt in the gift shop that said, "My Owners Took Me to Yosemite, But All I Got Was Locked in the Car so I Wouldn't Get Eaten by a Mountain Lion", but alas, they didn't have any of those. Perhaps that's just too much print for a t-shirt made to fit a small dog. In turn, Jacob was looking for the stuffed animal pairing of a cute, fluffy coyote with a small dog clenched in its jaws. They had lots of other stuffed animals, but not that combination...

All in all, it really was a great experience. It made us want to go back with bikes for everyone and ride all around, and perhaps even try and camp for a few days. We still have lots to see there.

We even bought a year-long pass to all of the National Parks yesterday, so for all of our out-of-town friends and family: when you come and visit us, we can take you to one of the many California parks and show you around.

But you might want to leave your dogs at home.